


Directional Field

by Aris Merquoni (ArisTGD)



Series: Directionless [5]
Category: House M.D.
Genre: Alternate Universe, BDSM, Directedverse, Safe Sane and Consensual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-09-06
Updated: 2008-09-06
Packaged: 2017-10-06 20:48:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/57612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArisTGD/pseuds/Aris%20Merquoni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Foreman still isn't really sure what to make of switches in general, Chase in particular. And accidentally running into him at a club wasn't how he'd intended to get an education.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Directional Field

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my betas, and to [](http://helenish.livejournal.com/profile)[**helenish**](http://helenish.livejournal.com/) for the inspiration.

Eric Foreman had given his favorite club a few weeks after the change of ownership, to let the new owners settle out the inevitable troubles and get their footing, but the truth was the place had lost a lot of atmosphere in the switchover and seemed to be driving toward attracting the corporate, yuppie, scenester crowd as hard as possible. So he took Lahoya club-hopping the next weekend they were both free, hoping to scare up another cozy place with well-lit play rooms and a staff trained to keep out assholes.

He was heartened when he found the Screwtie and discovered Rick's old bouncer manning the door. Inside was initially promising, too; there was a drinking-and-dancing bar off to one side, but it was clearly separated from the play rooms, and a pair of tops were watching the intoxication levels of anyone heading for the dungeon.

"Dancing or playing first?" Lahoya asked.

Eric was about to answer when another top in the house uniform climbed the stairs and traded positions with one of the drunk wranglers. "Anything interesting?" the one leaving asked as she headed for the stairs.

"Oh, yeah," the new guy said, doing a quick check of the bar, "Alexis has Robbie up on the cross and is going _at_ him with a whip."

It could have just been coincidence, that confluence of names; it took Eric a moment to even recognize why it sounded familiar. But he could hear _A-LEX-is_ in Chase's drawl, and 'Robbie' was as good a nickname as any for a recalcitrant switch, first name Robert.

Miss Manners was of two minds when it came to running into co-workers at a club. On one hand, Eric thought it was ridiculous that he was considering leaving before trying the place out just because Chase was there, especially when it could be some other sub with the same name. On the other hand, he really didn't need to start thinking about Chase _as a sub_ at work. Between House, Cameron, and Wilson's hanging-on antics, their department was full of enough drama as it was.

Eric rolled his eyes at himself and slipped his arm around Lahoya's waist. "Let's check out the dungeon."

He kept track of details as they moved down the stairs, weighing the place in his mind. The theme was clean industrial, heavy on exposed piping and girders, all with tie-down points at short intervals. The lighting was mostly made up of adjustable spots, but there was plenty of it. The stairs dropped them off in a wide hallway that connected several small play rooms, but the attention and movement of the crowd seemed to be toward the main space at the end of the hall.

There was a platform off to one side, visible when they stepped inside the doorway, done up in blue spotlights and the center of everyone's attention. A short woman with thick black hair was strutting across the stage, expertly spinning a signal whip from her hand and keeping her eyes on the sub chained to the St. Andrew's Cross beside her.

It took Eric a few moments to realize that it was Chase. He'd been stripped down for the show, for one thing, leather shorts and the manacles that held him up and nothing else. But more than his outfit it was his expression, blissfully off in subspace and blind to the world.

His top snapped the whip over his head and he whimpered. Eric quickly eyeballed the woman's stance, but her technique was excellent; in the next moment she brought the lash down in a controlled stroke along Chase's spine, getting a choked "Thirteen" out of him.

"She's good," Lahoya offered dubiously.

Eric looked down, realizing he'd been staring. "I work with the guy," he explained, jerking his chin at the stage.

"Oh," Lahoya said, voice warming again. "Oh!" she said, quieter, "That's the switch?"

"Yeah."

Lahoya looked Chase over as his top lay down another stroke. "I wouldn't have thought," she finally said.

"Yeah," he said again, then looped his arm more firmly around Lahoya's waist and pulled her close, reassuringly. She smiled against his shoulder as the audience started applauding, Chase's top coiling her whip and then unclipping Chase from the cross frame.

The top--Alexis, that was her name, he'd heard Chase talk about her often enough--led Chase off and down to a couch along the wall, as another couple went on stage and started wheeling out a bondage frame. Chase flopped down on his side and curled up with his head in Alexis' lap, still grinning, as she dug a towel and a tube of lotion from a bag on the floor.

"You wanna go say hi?" Lahoya asked.

He looked down. She was giving him her _Oh, I've read your mind_ smirk. "You think it might be weird?"

She shrugged. "Only if you wanted to tie him up again," she said, which was the furthest thing from Eric's mind.

Alexis was gently rubbing lotion into the red welts on Chase's back, Chase with his chin propped on his arms in her lap, eyes closed and practically purring. Alexis looked up as they got nearer, smiled halfway to a question. "Hi."

"Hey," Eric said, "Nice work."

Chase opened his eyes, looked up, and froze, staring.

"Thanks," Alexis said.

"Foreman," Chase said. He blinked and shook his head slightly, then grinned, like a reflex. "Didn't expect to see you around here."

"Oh, you two--you work together?" Alexis asked. She looked down at Chase, then frowned, slightly.

"Yeah. Eric Foreman," Eric said, holding out a hand. "And this is Lahoya."

"Alexis Zeller." She took his hand with a perfunctory smile. Chase propped himself higher on his elbows, smirk falling into place along with his normal attitude and oh. Eric winced, hoping he was keeping it off his face. Shit.

There was a juice bar on the other side of the room. "Kinda warm in here, you want some Gatorade?" Eric asked Lahoya, feigning nonchalant and not sure if he wanted her to do the mind-reading trick again.

"Sounds good to me," she said.

Alexis caught his eye, nodded slightly. "That actually sounds nice. Robbie, you want me to get you something?"

Chase was _annoyed_ at the nickname, though he tried not to show it. "Long as you're buying," he joked, grinned and pushed himself off her lap.

Eric waited until they were standing in line before he said anything. "Sorry. I didn't know he'd snap out of it like that, I mean, just from me being there."

She sighed, then looked up at him with a wry smile. "If it hadn't been you, it would have been something else in a couple minutes," she said, long-suffering. "It said 'switch' on the box when I bought it."

Eric looked back at the couch. Chase was still lying on his stomach, but he'd fallen into easy conversation with Lahoya, gesturing expansively with the hand he wasn't lying on. "You two seem pretty well matched," he offered.

That got a snort. "I try." She looked back at their two subs, mouth twisting in a self-deprecating grimace. "I wanted a challenge. You know how there are subs who want scenes to be all about them, so they're always in control, and there are subs who want to let go of that control and just... give in?"

"Yeah," Eric said after a second's thought. "Yeah, I've always liked the second kind. Seems more honest."

"Yeah, well. Rob is both." Alexis shrugged. "And sometimes I can get from point A to point B, and sometimes... no dice."

When they got back with the Gatorade, Chase sat up and grinned, snagged the bottle out of Alexis' hand without asking. Bratting out. Eric had his own punishment rubric for that kind of behavior, and he assumed Alexis did too, but she just shrugged it off.

Eric let them get back to taking care of each other and led Lahoya off. Chase was giving Alexis a shoulder rub as they left to check out the more private rooms.

"You still wanna play," Lahoya asked, "or was that too weird?"

He forced a smile and planted a kiss on her forehead. "I promised you a night out, babe," he said. "What do you want to do?"

She chewed on her lip for a moment, then said, "Let's see what they have."

Turned out one of the unoccupied rooms had a great setup for freeform bondage, pipes welded into a birds-nest jungle-gym with nice strong crossbraces and plenty of flexible lighting. Lahoya's eyes lit up, so Eric pulled a couple skeins of hemp out of the kit bag she was carrying and started tying a harness.

The exercise was meditative, and helped clear his head. It seemed like only a minute before he had Lahoya suspended with her legs tucked behind her, tiny decorative knots pulling her hair back and down to her ankles. He let her spin and traced his fingers over her skin, pondering his next move.

He hadn't even noticed the top who'd come in to watch, truth be told. When he bent down to sort through the toys in his bag he noticed the guy leaning on the doorway, but it took until he'd stood up with the Wartenberg wheel that he recognized that it was Chase.

He raised an eyebrow. Chase just nodded. "Nice work."

Eric smirked. "Thanks." He turned back to Lahoya, who was squirming a bit; she claimed the wheel tickled, but she made pretty fantastic moans when he used it on her.

As he ran the tines over the exposed skin of her legs, he let a small part of his mind drift back to Chase; the weirdness of seeing a top in sub's clothing, which was a total switch move. Wondering where Alexis was. If he'd accidentally tanked their date by showing up.

That last question he ignored for now, concentrated on Lahoya. She deserved his attention, and Chase and his problems definitely did not.

By the time he'd finished, Lahoya was covered in sweat and grinning, and they'd attracted a bit more of a crowd. He put the wheel away and started untying her, and the people watching gave a polite round of applause and drifted off.

Chase was still watching. Eric got Lahoya's feet under her before he permitted himself to care at all.

"Really, nice job," Chase said again.

"Thanks." He started undoing the binds on Lahoya's arms. "You practice?"

He didn't imply dom or sub, just in case. Chase had a faraway look on his face for a moment, then shook his head. "Nah, I don't have the patience for it."

"It does take that," Eric agreed.

Chase nodded, fiddled with the locks on his manacles for a moment. "So," he said, fake-casual, "you going to be coming back here, y'think?"

Eric slid the last of the ropes off Lahoya's shoulders, suddenly wondered--wondered if Chase went to different clubs with doms than with subs, if he had to keep those parts of himself separate, for all the play-acting he did about mixing it up.

So it was with a little altruism that he said, "We're doing some shopping around, since our normal club started sucking. So not for a while, anyway."

Altruism and a desire not to get mixed up in any more of Chase's life than he had to.

Chase seemed mollified. "Okay, well, see you at work."

"See you."

Lahoya helped him coil up the rope. When Chase vanished down the hallway, she leaned in and asked, "Are all switches that weird?"

Eric shrugged. "I dunno, don't know that many."

"You don't think I'm like that, do you?"

She only looked a little concerned, but he wrapped his arms around her reassuringly. "Honey, you might be a little kinky, but you're nowhere as weird as he is. Trust me."

"Okay, then." She leaned up to kiss him. "So, not coming back here, then?"

"Not unless the alternative is going back to Rick's-without-Rick."

"Fate worse than death," she agreed, grinning. "How about we just go back to your place, then? I've got a mind to demonstrate how half an hour of getting teased with that tickling thing made me feel."

**Author's Note:**

> Some definitions, with pictures for the curious: [Wartenberg wheel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartenberg_wheel), [St. Andrew's Cross.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-frame) Pictures are all, if not guaranteed worksafe, at least not displaying nekkidness.


End file.
